F20-29 at Rio Del Lago 100: Zoe Ray Runs Away With It

• Zoe Ray won the F20-29 age group in 19:29:55 — an 11:42/mi average across 100 miles, finishing more than six hours ahead of the next F20-29 finisher.
• Ray climbed from 22nd among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 5th among women by mid-race, then held that position through the finish.
• Ray posted the 3rd-fastest women's split on the No Hands 2→Overlook 2 segment in the entire women's field.
• Emily Sall edged Lily Simmons at the line — 25:20:55 to 25:39:12 — despite Simmons having moved ahead of her at several earlier checkpoints.

Zoe Ray turned the F20-29 age group into a one-woman show. The 26-year-old from Oakland went out in 22nd among women and spent the first half of the race methodically hunting down competitors, reaching 12th, then 9th, then 5th by the race's midpoint. Once she hit that mark, she locked in and never wavered, holding 5th among women for the entire back half of a 100-mile race. That kind of sustained surge — climbing 17 places among women in the first half and then defending every one of them — is the story of her day.

The closing stretch gave Ray another chance to shine. Her No Hands 2→Overlook 2 split ranked 3rd among all women in the field, a sharp reminder that she wasn't just managing effort late in the race — she was still moving with genuine purpose at a point where most runners are simply surviving.

Behind her, the battle for 2nd in the age group had an unexpected twist. Emily Sall, 28, from nearby Loomis, spent much of the race trailing Lily Simmons in the women's standings — Simmons had pulled as far ahead as 8 places among women by the 40-mile range. But Sall found something on the Cool→No Hands 2 leg, posting the 7th-fastest women's split on that segment, and ultimately crossed the line in 25:20:55 to claim 2nd in the age group. Simmons finished 2nd in F20-29 in 25:39:12, nearly 19 minutes back — a hard-fought result after a long, grinding back half.